County: Galway Site name: Keernaun 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 12E0288
Author: James Hession
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 528013m, N 744415m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.444895, -9.083620
Excavation undertaken at Keernaun 1, Co. Galway prior to the N84 Luimnagh Realignment Scheme, which extends between Cloughanover and Kilgarriff townlands in Co. Galway
Stage (i) Test Excavation and Survey Services and Stage (ii) Pre-Excavation Services were carried out by Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd in July 2012 under licence 12E100 (below No. 286). Stage (i) Services under the current contract identified a single, previously unrecorded archaeological site, a burnt mound, in Keernaun townland at the northern limit of the alignment.
Stage (ii) Pre-Excavation Services were carried out on behalf of Galway County Council on the 11 July 2012. Stage (ii) Services confirmed the archaeological significance of Keernaun 1 which was provisionally identified as a burnt mound.
Full excavation at Keernaun 1 was undertaken at the site in September 2012. The area of excavation measured 377m² and revealed a single phase of activity. The features identified during the excavation consisted of a burnt mound with an underlying peat layer, two pits and a trough.
The trough was located centrally within the site. It was rectangular in plan, orientated east–west and measured 2.4m by 0.8m by 0.35m deep. The western edge of the trough was lined with eight sub-rectangular stones measuring (on average) 0.17m by 0.12m by 0.09m deep. The trough was filled by a single fill of friable black peaty clay with frequent small to medium-sized angular, heat-affected limestone with occasional larger angular stone also noted.
A large pit was identified approximately 1m north-west of the trough. It was sub-circular in plan with a concave profile and measured 0.96m north-south by 0.87m by 0.27m deep. It had a single fill of friable black silty clay with frequent inclusions of heat-shattered angular limestone.
The second pit was located in the north-west corner of the site. It was sub-rectangular in plan, orientated east-west and measured 0.8m by 0.4m by 0.14m deep. It had a single fill of moderately compacted black peaty clay with inclusions of frequent angular heat-shattered limestone.
A deposit of burnt mound material sealed the trough and pits identified at Keernaun 1. It consisted of a large sub-circular mound of friable black peaty clay with frequent inclusions of heat-shattered grey limestone and occasional charcoal pieces. The mound had a gentle convex profile and measured 19.4m north-west/south-east by 13m by 0.35m deep. The north-eastern extent of the burnt mound overlay a deposit of peat which is thought to have formed along the edge of the adjacent former turlough.
Two radiocarbon dates were returned from a sample of birch charcoal recovered from the fill of the trough and a grain of charred barley from the fill of the second pit. These produced Middle Bronze Age dates ranges of 1616–1451 cal. BC (SUERC-43953) and 1499–1390 cal. BC (SUERC-43952) respectively.
Analysis of the palaeoenvironmental assemblage by Susan Lyons identified a small number of charred wheat (Triticum sp.) and barley (Hordeum sp.) grains from the fills of the sub-rectangular pit and the trough, with a small quantity of uncharred buttercup seeds identified from the burnt mound. A total of nine wood species were identified from the charcoal samples indicating a mixed woodland environment in the environs of Keernaun 1. Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), pomaceous woods (Maloideae spp.) and alder (Alnus glutinosa) were the dominant wood species recorded, most notably from the sub-circular pit and the trough. Lower occurrences of birch (Betula sp.), alder buckthorn (Rhamnus fragula), oak (Quercus sp.), willow (Salix spp.), cherry-type (Prunus sp.) and wild cherry (Prunus avium) were also identified, suggesting that some selection preferences were going on onsite.
Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd, Unit 2, Europa Enterprise Park, Midleton, Co. Cork
